SENATE GANG OF EIGHT MAY BE CLOSE TO IMMIGRATION DEAL

Agreement difficult on creating program for low-skilled labor

A bipartisan group of senators neared agreement on a comprehensive immigration bill that would put unauthorized immigrants on a 13-year path to citizenship, officials with outside groups keeping up with the talks said Thursday.

The legislation also would install new criteria for border security, allow more high- and low-skilled workers to come to the U.S. and hold businesses to tougher standards on verifying their workers are in the country legally, according to outside groups and lawmakers involved. Together, the measures represent the most sweeping changes in immigration law in decades.

The senators in the so-called Gang of Eight were meeting for hours at a time daily this week trying to complete a deal. There were still big disagreements on some issues, but they hoped to resolve most of them before Congress begins a two-week recess at week’s end. That would allow them to meet a self-imposed deadline to present their legislation next month.

“We are grappling with a number of issues, we really are, but I think we are making progress,” said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

The group was under pressure to speed up its work. Protesters converged Thursday on the office of Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., a leader of the group, to accuse him of breaking his initial promise to have the bill done in March. Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., whose panel would take up the legislation, complained this week that the group was taking too long. As a result, Leahy said, his committee won’t be able to complete writing the bill itself in April, as he had hoped.

Several officials with outside groups said the biggest remaining areas of disagreement dealt with legal rather than unauthorized immigration. Top among them was a proposed program to bring in tens of thousands of new immigrants to fill low-skilled jobs. It had been the subject of difficult negotiations between the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and AFL-CIO. Although the two sides had made progress, they had not yet reached agreement on all details about the structure of a new visa program. Senators were mediating offers and counteroffers.

There was more agreement on the path to legalization for the 11 million unauthorized immigrants already in the country. Outside officials said there was basically consensus on the issue, even though it was the one that tended to cause the most public consternation. But senators have stressed repeatedly that nothing was agreed to until everything was agreed to.

The officials described the status of the discussions on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about them.

The new bill would contemplate a 10-year wait for unauthorized immigrants already in the U.S. before they could get a green card allowing them permanent residency, senators have said. During that time they would be in a provisional legal status.